According to Sky journalist Dharmesh Sheth, Tottenham Hotspur will not extend Clement Lenglet’s loan deal and have identified Piero Hincapie as one of their summer transfer priorities.
Antonio Conte has had difficulty filling the left center-back position within his 3-5-2 formation, which is part of the back three, since he took over the team.
He used Ben Davies in that role last season, who put in strong performances, but he is a natural left-back. The center-back position requires different set of skills and responsibilities which may be hard for a left-back to adjust to.
After failing to sign any of their primary targets in the summer, Spurs restored to singing Clement Lenglet from Barcelona on a loan deal as stop-gap signing.
Spurs have been linked with a number of defenders so far as Conte looks to improve his team including Inter Milan’s Alessandro Bastoni.
And most recently they have been surprisingly been linked with Bayer Leverkusen defender Piero Hincapie.
Sky Sports’ Dharmesh Sheth had wrote in his transfer blog yesterday that Spurs are ‘looking at‘ the 20-year-old defender.
And earlier when asked about the links, he explained that they are not expecting Lenglet’s contract to be extended and the Bundesliga starlet is on top of the club’s wishlist. He told Chris Cowlin:
“The information I’ve been given is this, you’ve got Clement Lenglet, a left-sided central defender. He’s on a straight loan from Barcelona. I’m not expecting that to be extended in any kind of way, or Tottenham, at this stage, to make that a permanent deal.”
“There’s no option for that to happen as it stands. So he will go back to Barcelona. One of the big priorities then will be a left-sided central defender. And Tottenham are already doing their due-diligence as all good football clubs will do.
“One of the players that they are looking at is Piero Hincapie, 20-years-old, left-sided central defender, Bayer Leverkusen, Ecuador international as well. They’ve been looking at him for a while now, is what I’ve been told. And they will make him one of the priority signings in the summer. But Napoli are looking at him as well.”
The Ecuadorian is a highly rated youngster in Bundesliga but Conte might be hoping to sign a world class centre-back that will immediately improve his defense rather than a star for the future.
And as evidenced by the Djed Spence signing, about which Conte revealed that it was a signing that the club wanted and not him, he has only limited the youngster to seven minutes of league football showing that the club can not force a player on him that he does not approve of.
